Quarterly estimated tax payments 2026: due dates and how much to pay

If part of your income has no tax withheld, such as freelance, gig, rental or investment income, the IRS expects you to pay tax on it during the year, in four installments. Here are the 2026 due dates, how to tell whether you need to pay, how much is enough to avoid a penalty, and how to pay.

When are 2026 estimated tax payments due?

All federal deadlines, including the filing date, are on our tax calendar.

Do I have to pay estimated tax?

In most cases you must, if both of these are true:

1. You expect to owe at least $1,000 for 2026 after subtracting withholding and refundable credits.
2. Your withholding and refundable credits will be less than the smaller of 90% of your 2026 tax or 100% of the tax on your 2025 return.

You do not have to pay if you were a US citizen or resident for all of 2025 and had no tax liability that year. If you also have a job, you can skip estimated payments by asking your employer to withhold more on a new Form W-4.

How much should I pay each quarter?

To avoid the underpayment penalty, your withholding and estimated payments together need to reach the smaller of:

• 90% of this year's tax, or
• 100% of last year's tax (110% if your adjusted gross income last year was over $150,000, or $75,000 if married filing separately).

Split the amount into four equal payments. The prior-year rule is the easy one when your income is growing: last year's tax is a known number, so you can pay a quarter of it each time and settle the rest in April.

The estimated tax calculator does this for your own numbers, including withholding from a job and last year's tax. The 1099 tax calculator adds state income tax.

What if my income is uneven during the year?

Equal payments assume you earn evenly. If most of your income arrives late in the year, you may be able to pay less in the early quarters with the annualized installment method, which you show on Form 2210 when you file.

What happens if I pay late or too little?

You may owe a penalty for underpayment of estimated tax, figured on Form 2210. It is not a flat fine: it applies to each installment that was short, for the number of days it stays unpaid. You avoid it if you owe less than $1,000 when you file or met one of the safe amounts above. The IRS may waive it after a casualty, disaster or other unusual event, or if you retired after age 62 or became disabled during the year or the year before and the shortfall had a reasonable cause.

How do I pay estimated tax?

• IRS Direct Pay: a free transfer from a bank account.
• Your IRS online account, which also shows the payments you have made.
• Debit card, credit card or digital wallet, through a payment processor listed on IRS.gov (the processor charges a fee).
• Check or money order with a Form 1040-ES payment voucher.

You can pay all the year's estimated tax at once by the first due date. This guide covers federal tax; states that tax income may have their own estimated payment rules and dates.